88 A REPORTER AT LARGE T HERE were newsreel pictures of the Morro Ca5tlc disaster showing in the Broadway the- atres late Saturday night, about eight- een hours after the first SOS went out from the burning ship, and silnilar pic- tures Inoving out by train and ship and airplane to all parts of the world at the saIne time. Here is how one of the film cOlnpanies, Fox Movietone News, did the job: The SOS was sent at about four- thirty o'clock Saturday Inorning. It was received, of course, at Coast Guard stations. One of the Coast Guard offi- cers earns a sInall retainer by tipping Movietone off to itnportant happenings, and just after five o'clock he had the New York office on the wire. None of the bosses was around. The general manager was in New London. The managing editor was at Freeport. The news editor was at Atlantic Beach. The .film editor was at South- old. The assignment editor was in New Jersey. The COlnmentator was in Westport, and the librarian was at Rego Park, L.I. All of them were asleep, and all of the camera and sound men were at home asleep, except two or three who were off on as- slgnlnents. But within a few Ino- men ts the telephones were ringing in these widely sep- arated places. Everybody in the organization, includ- ing stenographers and of- ficeboys, .filtn-cutters and projection Inen, was sum- Inoned instantly to work. Even the comptroller was called and told to bring plenty of cash with him for the hiring of cars and air- planes and boats, and to bring his checkbook in case some alnateur might have filtn for sale. Six field crews - each crew consisting of a cam- era man, a sound man, and a contact man to do the talking and make the a 1'"_ rangements-were assem- bled and given these several asslgnmen ts : No.1, to hire an airplane and shoot pictures of the vessel from the air. No.2, to get aboard the Monarch of Bermuda, one of the rescue ships, and in- ing Inade that point by dead reckoning and luck, followed the breakers down -the coast at an altitude of twenty-five feet. They got their pictures, but on the way hOlne were forced down three tÏtnes. By noon, however, they tore into the office with .five hundred feet of negative. The newsreel men who got aboard the Monarch were the only press peo- ple of any sort to see the surviving melnbers of the Morro Castle's crew, take pictures, and get interviews with theIn, before they were taken in tow by the Ward Line's lawyers at the pier. They bought quantities of alnateur .filtn shot by passengers on the Monarch. The outfit on the tug, after shooting Inany closeups of the burning vessel, went aboard the Luckenbach ship, a terrifying job in view of the heavy seas and the delicate equiplnent that had to be transported, and got pictures and spoken observations which turned out to be exceptionally valuable, for the crew which was a waiting the arrival of this ship at the pier found themselves altnost cOlnpletely frustrated. Officials who had been told to prevent any in- terviews with the surviv- ing Morro Castle sealnen built up blinds to mask the calneras from the gang- plank, and thought out in- genious tricks of lighting to ilnpair the effectiveness of calnera lenses in that dark place, and manufac- tured a cacophony of sound to Inask the true noises of the arriving ship with its dazed passengers. But everybody Inade pictures, all the crews brought back sOlnething, and there was plenty of authentic sound: the cries and dreadful confusion of the rescue work, the roar of the flalnes, the shouts of officers giving orders, and in terviews with the res- cued, which caIne in moans or in explosive incoherence or in quiet, restrained VOIces. By three o'clock in the afternoon, .five thousand feet of .film were in New York. It was developed as it caIne in and put on the drums to be dried as NE W SR.EEL terview the survivors, buy up any ama- teur film in sight. No.3, to get to a Brooklyn pier and await the Andrea F. Lucken- bach, which was bringing Inore sur- VIvors. No.4, to go to Asbury Park and take the shore scenes No.5, to pick out other strategic points on the Jersey coast and cover theIne No.6, to hire a tug and get as close to the burning wreck as possible. The aviation man had the toughest job, because it was a vicious dawn, with rain and wind and a hundred-foot ceil- ing, and pilot after pilot wholn he called on the telephone turned him down. After wasting half an hour on the phone, he went to a lunch wagon at one of the flying .fields and found four pilots sitting there. He goaded and harangued theIn, calling them off for a pack of yellow cowards, until one could stand it no longer and agreed to fl y him. The ship had no instrulnen ts for night or fog flying. They pointed it toward Sandy Hook and then, hav- -:.......f...:....:... ..v -k-.. .,:-.,; - f : , " \.J:: :/ .:,,::;'<:" ,..,{Ii: ::-:: ::::;:.:Ý...-;... ,..::. äi:,:, ..,:1iii\f$ f 'I;':::" :"'>>':"fl.4 l%1 r < :-: :<-. wq" W"'T^,: -- t ..,':.:;. ,,); , ".. ,øJ' d ,;;1' ! :i\ ] ì -c'., ' ' !f i ! . ; - 1/ . IE; / . .. j J J{'ip:? " .:l. ::;; 'ø i :<, J-j'J. 1 '.=:" g . , , ; , , , ' , i , :'.: 1 :; . - .... :-: . : : ; . : : ; t ,: :; mti w r: ;;:::"::::,:':::;(: ,,... 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